A failure of Irish Journalism.

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday September 16, 2002 13:02 by Joseph Murtagh. joemurtagh2001 at yahoo dot ie

Enda Kenny's racist joke.

It is not just Enda Kenny who should resign. The hacks who fell deaf to his words should be expelled from the NUJ.

Enda Kenney, the leader of Ireland's leading opposition party, Fine Gael, has publicly apologised twice, after having been caught raconteuring a social gathering with racially offensive material.

Kenney who deemed 'the joke' worthy of telling but not of further publication, declared it off the record, after he had garnered the laugh. Of the approximately twenty-one journalists present, it seems than some twenty, perhaps in collaboration with their editors, obliged his request.

Internationally the remarks have been received with disbelief and dismay. Even the English conservative party, not historically known for their racial sensitivity, deemed it a resigning matter.

Within Ireland Kenny was attacked by among others the Irish Refugee Council and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties who said they could think of no occasion in which the word Nigger was appropriate.

The ‘Nigger’, who served as punch line for the joke was one Patrick Lumumba, the African nationalist leader and first prime minister of the Congo, was assassinated in 1961.

That Kenny should resign would be unquestionable in most other European countries. It would be unfair to blame the Irish people (only 48% think he should resign) when in Ireland a media climate exists where the story almost went unreported. This indicates the presence of serious structural failures within Irish journalism.

Ireland is a small country where journalists and politicians coexist in a relationship of parasitic co-dependency. The dependency of the journalist is made unhealthier by strict libel laws, increasing media management by political parties, and more concentrated media ownership.

Equally insidious is the pervasive 'sure aren't we only a small country' mentality that excuses unacceptable behaviour on the specious idea that Ireland is not yet socially developed enough to conform to international standards or ethical codes of conduct. Hence, there's no point telling the people what their leader in waiting might say or think. A case of intellectual patronising at it's worse. The reality is, that it is Irish Journalism which is not yet developed enough to demand political adherence to International standards. Not the Irish people.

The journalists in question were sophisticated enough to tell the difference between an acceptable and unacceptable joke. Indeed many at the time recognised it as a 'gaff' but still chose not to report it. Whatever their reasoning the people in question are in breach of their own NUJ code of conduct:

1. A journalist has a duty to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards.

2. A journalist shall at all times defend the principle of the freedom of the press and other media in relation to the collection of information and the expression of comment and criticism. He/she shall strive to eliminate distortion, news suppression and censorship.

9.A journalist shall not lend himself/herself to the distortion or suppression of the truth because of advertising or other considerations.

Those who know names have an obligation to forward a complaint to the NUJ's Disciplinary proceedings body. If found guilty of bringing the union in to disrepute (and I suspect they will be), they should be asked to resign their membership.